Category: More Street Stories

Guest posts from Keith Bettinger and other street veterans. Also, miscellaneous but important things in the cop world–training, forensics, stress management, etc.

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View from the Tower

View from the Tower: Kevin Cooper

 

110083 met cooper w 3.jpg
Kevin Cooper listens during his preliminary November 1983 hearing in Ontario where he stood accused of murders in Chino Hills in June of 1983. (Inland Valley Daily Bulletin staff file photo)

We’ve all heard the story about Kevin Cooper (AKA David Troutman). He’s the convicted killer who escaped from the California Institution for Men (CIM) State Prison in Chino, California only to break into a home in Chino Hills, and kill five people. Chino Hills was then a small community about three miles from the prison. I worked at CIM then and here’s the real story behind his escape.

 

Cooper was an escapee for a Pennsylvania mental facility. His crimes there were non-violent property crimes (burglary). He fled to California where he was arrested and convicted for burglary. He received a 4-year sentence. He changed his name to Troutman which oddly escaped notice by the police and California Department of Corrections (CDC).

 

5.0.2P1
California State Men’s Prison at Chino (CIM)

 

He sat in county jail for a while before he arrived by bus to CIM June of 1983. Back then, all non-violent offenders were housed in the minimum-security yard. This was the original 1941 honor ranch facility envisioned by Mr. Kenyon Scudder in the 1940’s as a “prison without walls,” or an honor ranch with bars. It was part of his plan to rehabilitate criminals through hard work, sunshine, and humane treatment. Didn’t work then, or now. Cooper was sent from our Maximum Security building to Minimum Security solely based on the paperwork designating him as a simple thief. It was a common practice.

 

The Minimum yard consisted of large concrete dormitories, some of which had cells, but most didn’t. It had no guard towers but did have a three-foot-high barbed wire cattle fence perimeter. That’s it. The facility used to keep a decent herd of dairy cows which provided fresh milk to CIM and other facilities. Hence the barbed wire fence. Not exactly except-proof, but a boon for David Troutman/Kevin Cooper.

He was there exactly one night.

When the fog rolled in (which got very thick there), he rolled out! He just stepped over the fence to freedom.

CIM was surrounded by over 2,000 acres of prime farmland (much of which was sold to developers for housing just before I left in 2007). When Cooper left, southern Chino was mostly an agricultural area with corn fields everywhere. Easy place to hide. A lumber mill sat just up the road. Nor were there many street lights to contend with.

 

troutman
June 9, 2003 at the West End Substation to identify suspect in. Chino Hills murders as Kevin Cooper. (Walter Richard Weis / Staff Photographer)

In the darkness of southern Chino, Cooper hid in the lumber mill. Then he made his way to Chino Hills where he committed those ghastly and brutal murders. As soon as he was missed at the next head count, we set out to find him. Mutual assistance was provided by San Bernardino County Sheriff’s and the City of Chino Police. We all wanted this guy who we thought was escaped burglar David Troutman.

 

After he was arrested in Northern California, his real identity was discovered.

Midge Carroll was the interim Warden who had been assigned to CIM to look into staff corruption. She got the heat for Cooper’s escape. She didn’t deserve it, frankly. Wrong place at the wrong time.

Of course, the state looked for someone to lynch besides our warden. So, they summoned the entire Records staff into the San Bernardino Grand Jury. Nothing came of theat. Records merely followed established protocol.

prison towerAs a result of this, things changed: to this day, all inmates are sent to maximum security until such time as their background paperwork is received into Records for review. Also, a 12-foot-high chain link fence with razor wire surrounds the Minimum yard, and armed gun towers were installed.

Although the fence remains, all the gun towers except sally port towers have been deactivated due to electrified fence installations throughout CIM. It is much more efficient and a whole lot cheaper. The only bad result is the matter of discretion was removed when the fences went up. Before an officer could either wound an escapee (leg shot, etc.) or head shot. It was the officer’s call.

The fence just kills. I never liked that.

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View from the Tower

View From the Tower: Rodney King Days

By John Schick, Retired California Department of Corrections

In the early nineties, I was working on the Complex Transportation Team. We were responsible for moving inmates from one facility to another inside our prison. We also transported to other local facilities such as county jails (LA, Orange, Feds, etc.), and sometimes upstate if the state bus crews had wheelchair bound inmates their buses

Jim Clinton suit 1980's
Jim Clinton suit from Jim Clinton Men’s Store 1980’s vintage — courtesy rustyzipper.com

couldn’t accommodate. More importantly for this story, we did transports to federal court downtown for inmates who had pending civil rights lawsuits. We’d slip them into the Jim Clinton suit their attorney provided in an attempt to make them look “civil”, and drive them to court. It was a pain, overall.

 

One escort in particular was different. We had a black inmate who had filed a civil rights violation lawsuit against Long Beach PD. The year was 1993. No big deal, except the Rodney King jury was in deliberation. No one on our team wanted to go downtown, if you get my drift. Although we were armed, it just wasn’t a desirable place to be. We went anyway.

So, we get to court, and the place was going crazy! Federal, local, and county cops were everywhere! Helicopters were buzzing overhead. I recall seeing TV reporter Henry Alfaro standing there with his minions surrounding him.

 

We had a time getting a free elevator. FINALLY, we snag one, and as we were going up we came to a stop. Damn! The door swings open and there stands LAPD Officer Lawrence Powell with two other guys. Here we are in street clothes with a black inmate in full restraints between us. I thought to myself, “Ah C’mon!” Powell who was a big guy looked in and said, “I think I have the wrong elevator!” That was damn right!

 

We got to our court’s floor, and as we were walking down the hall, we see the what to me looked like the entire Long Beach Swat Team lined up on both sides of the hall. Obviously, an intimidation move. The looks we got were as if to say, “You’re involved in this, too!”

NOT!

 

U.S._Court_House,_Los_Angeles
US Court House Los Angeles

So, we settle in court for what seems like hours. The tension was awful. We just wanted to get the hell out of there before the riot we all expected broke out. Five o’clock rolled around, and we hauled butt outta LA.

 

Not long the chaos started, and our court escort details came to a halt for safety issues. Our SERT teams had to go into LA to extract Parole Office personnel, and sometimes parolees out of the area.

What a time!

~~~

Read Thonie Hevron’s books: By Force or Fear, Intent to Hold, and With Malice Aforethought are all available through Amazon. Thonie will be at Copperfield’s Books August 26th, Saturday from 1:30-3:30. Also, she will be at Copperfield’s Santa Rosa Store October 1, 2017, Sunday from 1:30-3:30.

previewNJ31LJJV

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View from the Tower

View from the Tower: Adventure at the Range

prison guard towerBy John Schick, Retired California Corrections Department

Officer Frank C. was a character by anyone’s standards. He was the original “Make a Mountain Out of a Molehill” kinda guy. This caught up with him one day at our outdoor range. It was a blazing hot summer day (of course), and a group of new cadets were getting acquainted with the various weapons we use at work. When it came time to demonstrate the proper use of the federal gas gun, Frank began his Barney Fife impression. He was supposed to load a “Knee Knocker” baton round into the gun. Not our boy Frank! Instead he loads a flare round in and fires it into the dry grass on the berm.

Needless to say, it immediately caught fire!

Everyone retreated and the institution fire department arrived to attend to the growing grass fire. After putting it out, the truck got stuck in the mud created by the hose leaks. The farm supervisor sent a huge rubber-tire John Deere tractor out to pull the fire truck out of the mud. What a scene.John_Deere_9530_b

Kinda reminded me of a silent comedy.

 ~~

 

 

~~

With Malice Aforethought is now available on Amazon.com in eBook format; print copy available in pre-order status.Malice cover

 

 

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View from the Tower

View From the Tower: Breaking into Prison

Seal_of_the_Calirfornia_Department_of_Corrections_and_RehabilitationToday is the first time John Schick, retired California Corrections Officer, has appeared on Just the Facts, Ma’am. He is now a regular contributor along with Hal Collier, Ed Meckle, and Mike (all retired LAPD).

By John Schick, Retired California Department of Corrections

California Institution for Men, Chino (San Bernardino County)

First watch anywhere is boring! In a prison, it’s usually really boring. Almost every inmate is sound asleep. Employees do their assigned jobs such as nightly fence checks. This was done on foot around our facility. Big place. On foggy nights it’s cold, and sometimes creepy. Coyotes, owls, snakes, skunks—you name it’ we saw it. One night, however, we saw something very different. One of our gun towers radioed they had a man at gun point between our security fences on the south side.
prison guard towerMy partner and I as well as a motorized outside patrol sergeant hurried to the scene. Sure enough, there was a man in street clothes on the ground with his hands out. In fact, two tower officers had this lame in the sights of their mini-14’s. That could get ugly—227 hollow points make an impression—literally! So we entered the fence line, grabbed this guy, cuffed him, and drove him to the admin building. We interviewed this lump in the Watch Lieutenants office. His story was that he paroled out a week ago. He had no money. He had no job. He had no family. He was hungry, tired, cold, and wanted to come home. We called the Chino Police who arrested him for a parole violation, and trespassing, and destruction of state property—he cut a hole in our fence with bolt cutters!

After his parole agent violated him, he did, in fact, come home. We advised him next time just get caught stealing a can of beer. Much safer and easier! Many crazy things happened in there. Just pays to keep your eyes open.

Surprises are not always pleasant.

~~~

John started working for CDCR in April 1982. He worked
custody positions for many years to include Search & Escort Officer,
Complex Transportation Officer (Bus & Van Crew), Perimeter Towers,
Administrative Segregation Unit, and various other assignments. In
2000, he promoted to Correctional Counselor, and took a desk job. In that
capacity he got involved in the classification, gang investigation,
court pre-sentence report referral, and numerous other related
activities. He interacted with many other agencies, and met some VERY
unusual and interesting people. No regrets. He retired intact 2007.

 

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Rumors: The worst part about being a lady cop

Well put article from a female cop about one of the toughest aspects of the job.

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Donut County Cop: Cop Brain

 Link to original post on UniformStories.com 

10 Signs You Definitely Have Cop Brain

Written by 

<!– –> Michael Kappel/Flickr.com

It develops pretty quickly in some of us, and others take quite a bit of time to acquire it. Some can’t get it no matter how hard they try and eventually filter out to do other things.

Once you have it, it’s almost impossible to shake regardless of your surroundings. It can keep us alive and drive our friends and family insane. The only thing that seems to make it go away in the Donut is to be promoted to a command staff position, because apparently it is not allowed in the exclusive star and oak leaf cluster club.

You may be thinking that I’m referencing common sense, but you can’t really claim to have common sense when you regularly head in the direction of shots fired calls, violent disturbances and traffic crashes on a busy interstate. Common sense would dictate that you head in the opposite direction of those things. If your job requires you to wear something ballistic and carry a firearm to protect yourself, you hopefully have it. It’s a “cop brain.”

As a child of the 1980s, I vividly remember the old “this is your brain” public service announcement. The difference here is that once that egg is cracked and it hits the hot frying pan, the sizzle isn’t as a result of drugs. Dump a rookie cop in an unfamiliar scenario and that sizzle is because he or she hasn’t developed the “cop brain.” Given some experience and confidence, the sizzle point is harder to reach for the young copper, and eventually the pan has to be pretty damn hot to induce any sizzle at all.

Cop brain can be a great thing while you’re on duty, but it can make you look pretty silly while you’re not at work. Check out the list of 10 symptoms and see if you have this unique condition:

Symptom 1: The Phantom of the Radio

It’s always there, even when it’s not.

After wearing a lapel microphone attached to a portable radio for hours on end while on duty, it becomes second nature to lean your head in the direction of the mic in order to hear what is being said. It’s a totally normal behavior while you are in uniform and actually have the lapel mic on, but if you’ve ever done it while you weren’t in uniform and the mic was nowhere around you, welcome to the club. I’m not only a member, I’m the president.

Symptom 2: The Cop License Plate Game

Something just doesn’t look right here. [Source]

Like a lot of others who patrol the beat in between calls for service as a police officer, I pay some attention to the license plates near me just in case there’s one that is expired and begging to be stopped for a simple equipment violation. Sometimes I may even say the license plate number out loud to make it easier to remember as I type it into the computer to check the plate’s status. If you have cop brain it’s hard to shut this off, and you’ll likely drive your family crazy on long trips as you consistently point out all of the expired plates around while sometimes muttering them aloud.

Symptom 3: Sharing the Cop-fu Wealth

Now, let our training commence.
Since we deal with folks who don’t necessarily want to comply with us from time to time, we have mandated cop-fu training that consists of refreshers on pressure points, arm bar takedowns, and other similar tactics. Now if your 5-year-old can drive a bony little thumb into the mandibular angle of his classmates because you’ve shared this wealth of information with him, you probably have cop brain. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but just remember, it’s all fun and games until the Kindergarten teacher wants a special meeting with you to discuss little Johnny’s technique.
For the rest of this story, go to UniformStories.com

It’s time to patrol the Donut…

About the Author

 

Random thoughts of a suburban cop at a department bordering a major US city…because blogging is cheaper than therapy.

Website: https://donutcountycop.wordpress.com/

 

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Important News for First Responders

AdobeStock_102706188

This rare Tuesday Just the Fact’s, Ma’am post features an article by PoliceOne.com editor Doug Wyllie about the 1stHelp.net [please note updated web address] website. Karen Solomon (one of it’s founders) is a colleague of mine from the Public Safety Writers Association. When the request came, I was honored to be on the Board of Directors. I believe deeply in the value of this resource. I’ve known too many people over the years who couldn’t cope. If this website had been operational, who knows what difference it could’ve made?

This is a long article but worth the time if you’re in the first responder business or know someone who is. Please share with everyone you know so word will get to the ones who need help the most.

–Thonie

Be Advised…

with Doug Wyllie, PoliceOne Editor in Chief

New website connects cops in crisis with life-saving resources

1st Alliance has launched 1st Help, a searchable database dedicated to finding emotional, financial, and religious assistance for first responders and their spouses

Yesterday at 3:32 PM

A powerful new resource is now available for police, fire, and EMS responders, dispatchers, and corrections officers — as well as their spouses — who are in crisis or at risk of suicide. 1st Alliance has just launched 1st Help, a searchable database dedicated to finding emotional, financial, and religious assistance for first responders. In addition to assisting first responders in finding crisis-specific help, it will collect data on suicide and traumatic-stress events. This information will be used to save lives and improve the quality of life for first responders.

The goals of the new website and service are threefold:
•    Provide a central, global support database so first responders can confidentially find spiritual and emotional help
•    Form an alliance of first responders that can change legislation and benefits
•    Collect PTSI and suicide data that can be presented to affect change

The project is the brain child of Karen Solomon, Jeff McGill, and Steven Hough. Solomon is the author of Hearts Beneath the Badge and The Price They Pay — books that support law enforcement and reveal the trials and tribulations of the job. McGill and Hough are the co-founders of Type A Solutions, a training company focused on the needs of first responders. PoliceOne recently connected with Solomon to learn about the new service.

Answering the Call
“Over the last two years, I’ve spoken to hundreds of officers around the world — when my first book came out, it opened the floodgates of phone calls, emails, and messages on social media from officers who wanted to share their stories — wanted someone to hear them,” Solomon told PoliceOne.

“Each time I spoke to an officer I asked if they had sought help, most of them hadn’t. The reasons were all the same — they were afraid to be seen as weak, fear of reprisal from their departments, upsetting their home life, and mostly facing their demons and having the person they are speaking to not understand what they are going through.”

Solomon asked officers, “Have you heard of Safe Call Now or Heroes are Human or First Responder Support Network?” and most would reply that they hadn’t. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing — how could she know about these resources and they didn’t? Solomon knew because each time she heard a story from an officer she felt compelled to find them some comfort.

“I would look for a resource for them and send it to them in hopes they would use it,” Solomon said. “As I wrote the second book, I became increasingly frustrated with what was going on — the trauma, the suicides and the desperation. I began compiling a list of resources of law enforcement for the back of my book. It contains about 60 resources,” Solomon said.

Finding a Home
McGill and Hough had bought the domain name “1alliance.org” some time ago in the hope of forming an alliance of first responders that could help each other — they never found the time. Solomon approached the pair with the suggestion that their site become the host of her list of resources, and they readily agreed.

She then engaged the assistance of AVATAR Computing, a local computer company that “loves mission-based work” to help build the website, and began to raise funding to get the site built. Initial funding came from local Police and Sheriff’s Associations in Massachusetts, and two first responder non-profit groups. Recently, the organization enlisted the help of injured Bourne (Mass.) Officer Jared MacDonald and his wife Kerry, who have a non-profit and are willing to take this under their umbrella.

“Kerry has also been a key factor in getting the larger donations. A college friend of mine is donating business cards through his printing business, and gave me a deal on brochures and wallet cards with the website on them. The initial startup costs — less than $9K — all was funded through Massachusetts law enforcement associations, friends, Wounded Officers Initiative, and Protect and Serve,” Solomon said.

In Immediate Crisis
Upon landing on the website, the first screen will ask the first responder if they are in crisis and, if so, what country they are in. They will then be presented with the following information.

•    United States: Safe Call Now, Serve and Protect, National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
•    Canada: Tema Conter Memorial Trust
•    Australia: Lifeline Australia
•    United Kingdom: Samaritans

If a site visitor is not in immediate crisis, they can answer a few questions and have a list presented to them which will include a description of the organization. They can select which ones they want to print and/or download.

“The list will be comprehensive — PTSD, suicide prevention, recreational outings, spiritual help, service dogs,” Solomon said. “I’m also beginning a section for training. I truly believe that each person is different and while some organizations promote only PhD’s or only psychotherapy or only EMDR, I want to provide it all. Each person has unique needs and responds differently. If a first responder can improve their quality of life by petting turtles, I’m going to find them a therapy turtle and public opinion be damned. It’s not about what I think — it’s about what they think.”

“I believe that if we can make this a tool that is regularly used, we can change the stigma attached to mental health of first responders. We can show how many of them are really affected, we can bring all of these organizations out in the open so that they become common names around the police station, firehouse, or dispatch room,” Solomon said.

Presently, the service is available on a mobile-friendly website, but Solomon envisions one day also offering a mobile application, and her long-term plan is to continue collecting the data on suicide and PTSD so that awareness can be increased and positive change can be made.

“I want to collect suicide data for five consecutive years so we can see what’s really happening and how we can change that. The PTSD stories/data help to see where the issues are, whether or not they are getting help. I also plan to set up private forums for the providers that are listed so they can exchange ideas and best practices. People are re-inventing the wheel all over the place and don’t realize someone is working on the same thing somewhere else. They can pool resources and do it more quickly and efficiently,” Solomon said.

Important Details
It is important to note that the service will always be free to first responders and their spouses, and there is no charge to register a service organization to be listed in the database. The personal information — names, email addresses, and whatnot — about suicide and traumatic-stress is confidential. Personal information an individual enters about their traumatic-stress will not be shared with family, department, or other agencies. It is solely for their files in case they need to clarify a detail or validate the information. They want to provide statistics that may save other lives, not provide a vehicle to condemn yours.

Now that the service and the website are available, here are some of the things you can do:

•    When a first responder commits suicide, report it.
•    If you are a first responder and have post-traumatic stress, report it.
•    If you know of a provider of any type of assistance for first responders, register them for inclusion in the provider database.

If you wish to make a financial donation, you can send a PayPal donation to karensol217@mac.com, or send a check (or money order) to 1st Alliance, PO Box 539, Auburn, MA 01501. All donations are tax deductible.

Meanwhile, share this page with every first responder you know and everyone that loves a first responder.

About the author

Doug Wyllie is Editor in Chief of PoliceOne, responsible for setting the editorial direction of the website and managing the planned editorial features by our roster of expert writers. An award-winning columnist — he is the 2014 Western Publishing Association “Maggie Award” winner in the category of Best Regularly Featured Digital Edition Column — Doug has authored more than 900 feature articles and tactical tips on a wide range of topics and trends that affect the law enforcement community. Doug is a member of International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA), an Associate Member of the California Peace Officers’ Association (CPOA), and a member of the Public Safety Writers Association (PSWA). Doug is active in his support for the law enforcement community, contributing his time and talents toward police-related charitable events as well as participating in force-on-force training, search-and-rescue training, and other scenario-based training designed to prepare cops for the fight they face every day on the street.

Read more articles by PoliceOne Editor in Chief Doug Wyllie by clicking here.

Contact Doug Wyllie

 

Look for Ed Meckle’s The Call Box-My Short Career in Kidnapping on Thursday, June 23rd.

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A New Effort to Bring Care to First Responders in Need

1stAlliance seeks to ensure those who need care get they care they need

Article re-printed by CalibrePress.com with permission from the authorAdobeStock_102706188

By Karen Solomon

More than 240 million calls are placed to 911 each year in the United States alone: 240 million instances in which a first responder can be emotionally and/or physically injured. It happens more often than people realize. Once a first responder is traumatized by what he or she experiences, where do they turn to heal their wounds? Should they be burned in a fire or struck by a bullet or knife, what happens next? It’s a question they often ask themselves.

In my experience too many of injured and traumatized first responders will sit alone in front of a computer looking for someone to help them. They will seek someone who understands and won’t look upon them as if they are weak, who knows how to get them what they need without broadcasting it over the radio. It’s not an easy task. When they are in crisis, it becomes frustrating to the point that some will give up. Some will commit suicide.

Firefighters, peace officers, emergency medical technicians, corrections officers and dispatchers too often find themselves standing over an abyss of turmoil from which they can’t walk away. We’re going to change that. We’re going to find them the help they need. It’s a simple concept: A central database that doesn’t store any of their information and can point each and every one in the right direction.

What We’re Doing

Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Deputies Steven Hough and Jeffrey McGill know what it’s like to experience a critical incident and find themselves without the proper assistance to recover. They longed for a collaboration of the first responder resources scattered around their country, and a way to reach the people who need those resources. I joined them to form 1stAlliance, and from there a database was born.

Thanks to a collaboration with another injured officer, Bourne Massachusetts Officer Jared P. MacDonald, 1stAlliance is a 501(c)3 charitable organization whose sole mission is to provide a way for first responders to find their way out of the darkness.

On June 1 of this year 1stHelp.net will be launched: a free, confidential way for first responders to find emotional, financial and spiritual assistance. If they’re in immediate crisis, they’ll be provided with a 24/7 resource to call. If they’re not in immediate crisis, they’ll be able to enter some basic criteria and be matched with resources that match their needs. They can take their time selecting the best fit. But, most importantly, they’ll have a starting point.

This endeavor is not a short-term bandage. We have partnered with Avatar Computing and plan to develop this into a free, downloadable app over the next six months. Avatar has been incredibly generous and will be redesigning both sites, logos and assisting with the long-term development of the organization. We’re also collecting suicide statistics, and we have a five-year plan to provide baseline data that can tell us a story about what’s happening to our first responders.

We also want to hear about the PTSD experiences of first responders. Those stories help us understand where we should focus our efforts. Our goal is to find out what first responders need most, identify those resources, and present them in a simple, confidential manner. No judgement. No fear of reprisal.

Conclusion

It’s important to note that we aren’t competing with the established organizations. We are instead providing a vehicle for more people to find them. We have nearly 100 vetted resources in the United States, Canada, and Australia that are trained to assist first responders. What became a quiet national project is blossoming into a global endeavor. Through the chat forums that will be installed this summer, providers can collaborate best practices and ideas on a global scale, all with an eye to improving the quality of life of those that serve us.

If you’d like more information, please feel free to visit our website http://www.1alliance.org or contact me at karen@1alliance.org. This project has been funded to date through private donations and we continue to seek long-term corporate partners.

We are also providing free informational cards to any individual or department that would like to hand them out to their members. These cards bear our logo and the website and are a handy reminder that you are never alone. Simply visit our website and we’ll find you a safer outlook.

Do you provide services to first responders? Register for inclusion in the database here. If you’re a first responder, bookmark our site, share your PTSD story with us or let us know when someone completes suicide. Our success is your success.

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Tales From the Street: The Goat Whisperer

 By Captain Craig Schwartz, Santa Rosa (Ca) PD

This post was originally posted on the SRPD blog on March 31-April 1, 2016

For this edition of the Captain’s Blog I have two guest contributors, Officer Tim Gooler and Sergeant Marcus Sprague.  They told me about a call for service they both went to on the Tim’s first patrol shift and I thought I had to share it.  The story below is taken from both of their accounts of the incident, and told in the officer’s words, with contributions from his Sergeant.

It was June of 2015. I remember it well, because it was my very first day as a police officer with the city of Santa Rosa. I was fresh out of the academy, sitting in the passenger seat of a black and white patrol SUV, with my first Field Training Officer behind the wheel.

I had watched enough episodes of Cops growing up, and seen enough Die Hard movies, that I thought I knew exactly what to look forward to in my first night as a police officer. Driving to hot calls with my lights and siren on, catching criminals in the act and taking them to jail. Whatever the night held, I hoped I was ready for it.

A little while into my first shift, dispatch put out a call from a man who said a horned animal chased him into a tree along the Joe Rodota Trail, just west of Dutton Avenue. My Sergeant, having heard calls like this before, quickly decided that the caller had to be high on meth and hallucinating.  That would seem more logical than having an actual horned beast treeing people in the middle of Santa Rosa, right?  People who are high on meth can be unpredictable and dangerous, so the Sergeant and several other officers started driving that way too.  I didn’t know what to expect, but you can imagine my surprise when I got there and found that the caller wasn’t high at all.  He really had been chased into a tree…by a mean, long-horned goat.  I’ll call the goat Billy for now.

 

We got the man safely out of the tree, and tried to corral the goat using our patrol vehicles. Although I identified myself as a police officer to Billy, he wasn’t swayed by the verbal de-escalation skills that I had been taught in the police academy. Billy didn’t cooperate with my requests to go back into his fenced field, and eventually he began to ram the tree and our patrol cars with his horns.  One of our more senior officers grew up on a farm, and she looked askance at the rest of us as we tried to keep from being taken out by the angry goat.  Even with her farm experience she couldn’t take the animal off its feet – I mean hooves.

I thought back to the 20 weeks of police academy training and realized there hadn’t been a class on “goat wrangling.” Come to think about it, none of the tools on my duty belt or in my patrol car were for goat wrangling either. My Sergeant handed me the dog catcher’s pole and told me, “Rope the goat.”  I looked at him for a moment like he was joking, but his expression never changed.  “Seriously?” I asked.  He had to be messing with me since it was my first night on the job. He told me again, “Rope the goat.”  I tried to put the wire loop over the goat’s head as my Sergeant shouted encouragement and instructions, but quickly learned that it was too small to fit over Billy’s horns.  I had no luck using our leg restraints either.

Finally, a homeless man named Jorge came wandering down the trail with two bags of groceries. He looked at all the police cars and officers and asked in accented English, “Can I pass?”  We said, “Sure, but watch out for that goat.  He charges anyone who gets near him.”  He said ok, and continued down the trail past our cars.  After a few yards he stopped.  He looked at the goat, then looked back at us.  “That goat?” he asked. “I know that goat.”  He called out in Spanish to the goat and the animal walked calmly over to him like a pet dog.  I shouldn’t repeat the name he called the goat, so we’ll stick with Billy.   It turns out Jorge is a goat whisperer.  He asked my Sergeant to hold his groceries while he lifted up the barbed wire on a fence and led the goat back into the field where he belonged.  We thanked our helper and let the goat go with a warning for attempted vandalism and resisting. 🙂

My first night on the job showed me you never know what each patrol shift will bring.

May 12, 2016:

Hal Collier sent this to me and I thought it so funny I just had to add it.

–Thonie

 

 

 

 

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Captain’s Blog, 4/29/16: Right Team, Right Place, Right Time

https://www.facebook.com/SantaRosaPoliceDepartment/?ref=nf

This post appears on the Santa Rosa Police Department Facebook page.

 

Capt Craig Schwartz
Captain Craig Schwartz of the Santa Rosa Police Department

 

By Captain Craig Schwartz, Santa Rosa (Ca.) Police Department

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog article called “The Cost”, in which I spoke about the devastating effects of suicide. Today I am happy to bring you all a story about a life saved rather than lost. It is a tale of teamwork, talent and training combining to literally bring someone back from the precipice. Detective Chris Mahurin, who showed tremendous skill and empathy while performing his duties in this incident, told me the following story about his experiences last Wednesday night. I cannot overstate the sense of pride and gratitude I felt about the men and women I get to work with after Chris told me his story. In my admittedly biased view, we are blessed to live in a community of good and caring residents and talented, professional public servants.

Enough of my blathering. Let’s get to Chris’ story about a life saved. It’s a long one, but I think it’ll be worth your time.

Detective Chris Mahurin’s regular assignment is to investigate sex crimes and domestic violence cases. He has a real passion for fighting human trafficking and also for working with youth. Our recent Youth Citizens’ Police Academy was his idea and he led the program. He also volunteers to help out with staffing shortages in our dispatch center, and on Wednesday night he was working an overtime shift there. He was supposed to be done working, but agreed to stay on a little longer to help out. About five minutes after he had been due to go home; a call came in from downtown.

A city employee from the Transit and Public Works Department was in a city parking garage next to the transit mall and found a young person seated on the ledge at the very top of the garage, threatening to jump. Dispatch immediately routed the call to patrol officers nearby. Officers Kyle Boyd and James Harris got to the scene quickly, but the distraught 19 year old did not want to speak, except to express his desire to die.

Chris is also trained as a member of our Hostage Negotiations Team, and was the only HNT member on duty at the time. Knowing that his training and skills could help the youth, he drove to the garage to try and save the youth’s life. He parked in the garage and began running up the stairs to reach the suicidal young person. As he climbed, he found himself alongside another young man. He asked his new companion, who we’ll call John (not his real name), who he was and where he was going, and learned that John was friends with the person on the ledge, who we’ll call Nathan (also not his real name). John gave Chris a quick briefing about the identity of the person on the ledge and what led him there. John wanted to talk with his friend, but Chris was able to convince him that he would be most helpful by telling Officer Harris everything he could about his friend.

When Chris reached the top floor he saw Officer Kyle Boyd trying to convince Nathan to come in off the ledge. Chris took over for Kyle, trying to establish a connection with Nathan. Chris said the next 25 minutes were the scariest, most stressful time he has faced in his career. Knowing that he was the only person in a position to keep this young person from leaping to his death was far more frightening than arresting a violent or potentially armed suspect. Chris didn’t have much success for the first 10 minutes or so as he tried to build a rapport with Nathan. He listened and watched as the young man cried and rocked forward on the ledge as if about to cast himself over the edge.

Eventually, Chris was able to use his training as a negotiator, along with his empathy and personality to open a window of communications with Nathan. He shared personal details of his own life and convinced Nathan that he was not alone in the pain and trauma he was experiencing now. He helped Nathan realize that surviving these experiences would allow him to help others going through similar trials.

Through the 25-30 minutes that Chris worked to save Nathan, Officer Kyle Boyd stood with him, relaying information from Officer James Harris and Nathan’s friend John. Information like that is invaluable to a negotiator working for a tidbit of information that would be the key to getting through to a distraught person. Finally, Nathan came off the ledge and sat on the floor of the garage. The officers sat with him, and then took him for help at Sonoma County’s new Crisis Stabilization Unit. Chris went with him so that Nathan had a person he trusted with him during the admission process. When Nathan was released from the CSU, he called Chris to talk and get more information about the resources Chris had offered on top of the garage.

 

These events are traumatic for all involved, and it is so nice to be able to report a situation in which teamwork between an alert citizen, dedicated friend, dispatchers, patrol officers, and negotiator saved the life of a young person. Thank you to all involved for a job well done. Thank you especially to the young person for choosing life.

– Captain Craig Schwartz